A New Murder in San José de Apartadó

On March 22, Bernardo Rios of San José de Apartadó was gunned down by a group of men known locally as paramilitaries, less than a mile from a military checkpoint. The same day, in different Colombian towns, two community leaders working to reclaim their stolen lands were also killed by alleged paramilitaries. These deaths are a sharp reminder that, despite widespread assertions that paramilitary activity no longer exists, such groups and their successors continue to operate, often in heavily militarized localities. The suffering Bernardo’s death has caused for his partner and young children, all members of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, are also poignant reminders of the continuing problems associated with Colombia’s internal displacement crisis.

Since the Peace Community was founded in 1997, 195 Peace Community members have been killed, yet only a couple of low-ranking army officers and paramilitary men have been convicted.

Petition to Obama:

Say No to the Free Trade Agreement with Colombia

Momentum is building fast in Washington to approve the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Colombia. Just today there will be two hearings in Congress about it! But we cannot let this unfair agreement move forward.

We know that a fair and humane trade agreement cannot be implemented in an environment in which union leaders are assassinated, the land rights of indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities and small-scale farmers are consistently undermined, and millions of people have been violently robbed of their homes. And we need your help today to remind our government that we should not even be considering this FTA until there are major improvements in human rights and labor conditions in Colombia.

Our partners at Latin America Working Group started this emergency petition in collaboration with change.org just days ago, and there are already over 10,000 signers. Now we need your help to make it bigger—20,000 signers—so we can really turn some heads in Washington!

Will you help us reach that goal by signing this petition and passing it along to everyone you know?

Colombia now endures the largest displacement crisis in the world, with 5.2 million people living in desperate conditions after being violently evicted from their lands. This agreement would only exacerbate that crisis by encouraging more large-scale agricultural, mining and other resource extraction projects that would push many more communities off their lands and into greater poverty. And for Colombia’s small-scale farmers still living on their lands, experience with similar agreements such as NAFTA has taught us that the unjust agricultural provisions of this trade agreement will make it even harder for these already struggling families to produce enough to survive.

And what’s more? Colombia is still the most dangerous country in the world to be a trade unionist. During President Obama’s campaign in 2008, he promised to not support a FTA with Colombia until conditions improved. They haven’t. There were 52 trade unionists killed the year he made his promise and 51 killed in 2010. Now we must hold him to his word.

Please take a stand for human rights today by signing this petition and sharing it with all your networks!

New FOR Booklet: What’s Land Got to Do with It?

Ever tried to explain Colombia’s conflict to someone who knows little about it? Or to understand it yourself, and the ways natural resources and territory are at the center of the conflict and the U.S. role?

What’s Land Got to Do with It? is a 36-page pocket-size booklet made for grassroots education of Colombia, land, and how the armed conflict affects ordinary people. With lots of graphics, pictures, quotes, and written in language accessible for kids and adults, What’s Land Got to Do with It? describes the history and human face of the violence in Colombia and its focus on land.

Available in bulk orders, for $25 for 20 copies postpaid, $60 for 50 copies. Individual copies are $1.75 postpaid. Click here to order your copies for your community group, you, and your friends.

Days of Prayer and Action for Colombia

Colombia’s faith communities stand firmly for peace amidst grueling violence. Now they ask faith communities across the U.S. to join them in this year’s Days of Prayer and Action for Colombia, from April 8 to 11.

Hundreds of faith communities will dedicate part of their worship service that weekend to praying and working for peace in Colombia.

Struggling for Peace in a War Zone Speaking Tour

San José de Apartadó Peace Community founding member Jesús Emilio Tuberquia is speaking in a nationwide tour that began March 27 and continues to April 20. He will talk about what led to his Colombian town’s decision to become a peace community, and the importance of international solidarity for their survival. The Fellowship of Reconciliation and Peace Brigades International, co-sponsors of the tour, maintain human rights observers in San José de Apartadó. Upcoming dates include:

For more information about the tour, contact Susana Pimiento, FOR’s Director of Action, (512) 542-1769.

News Briefs

United Nations Evaluates Colombian Rights

In late February the Colombia Office of the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights issued its report on 2010. In an attempt to recognize the good along with the bad, the report lauded new president Juan Manuel Santos´ efforts to repair some of the damage inflicted by his predecessor, Álvaro Uribe.

First, he has improved relations with the human rights community as well as his own judicial branch. Second, he has pushed for laws that, legally, would advance serious human rights issues such as land restitution and recognizing victims of state crimes in reparations by Colombia. Finally, his tenure has seen a significant decline in extrajudicial executions and “false positives” (the practice by the Army of killing civilians and counting them as “positive” guerrilla kills).

Nonetheless, the report reinforces what many human rights workers have already pointed out: that this valiant effort has not translated to significant on-the-ground improvement: ¨false positives¨ continue to go unpunished, the government still does not properly consult with indigenous communities about large development projects that would directly affect them, woman and children’s rights are still grossly violated and human rights and labor union workers continue to be threatened, kidnapped and murdered. In all, the report suggested that, although 2010 seems to have seen at least a turn in the right direction, it is still to be seen whether this change is real or merely rhetorical.

A State Department cable obtained by Wikileaks that recently appeared in the Colombian newspaper El Espectador strengthened the long-trumpeted warnings that the so-called illegal armed actors still represent a national threat similar to that of the paramilitaries and that the military continues to cultivate ties to these neo-paramilitary groups.

According to Jesús Gómez Mendes, ex-commander of the Rural Police Force, the thick links between the military and paramilitary organizations are the main reason why breaking the current web of illegal armed groups is going to be nearly impossible. Moreover, some intelligence officers report that these links are tightened by two facts: first, many current members of illegal armed groups are former military members with strong relationships to their former colleagues. Second, Colombia’s equivalent to the FBI, agreed to merge former paramilitary informant networks with their own. It is becoming increasingly clear that, despite Colombian government denials, Colombia will not be able to solve its paramilitary problem until it truly rids its own military of ties with such illegal armed actors.

U.S. Military Presence in Panama

By Marco A. Gandásegui, Jr., professor at the University of Panama and researcher with Center for Latin American Studies (from his blog)

Panamanian news media published on March 15 a brief note that a U.S.“military intervention” was to begin on national territory. The “invasion” took place in several former military bases that the U.S. had in what was previously known as the Panama Canal Zone. According to the news briefs, 45 military and naval officers were to occupy positions in Sherman (former Army base), Cerro Tigre (Army Special Operations headquarters in the last century), and Rodman (former U.S. naval base).

The information did not indicate the type of weaponry or logistics of the U.S. military presence in Panama. The news brief indicated that among the objectives of the military mission was the training of a total of 45 Panamanians in anti-drug operations. It was not clear where these 45 Panamanians, who will receive training for more than a month, between March 15 and April 19, would come from.

There are indications that the national government is creating military units with U.S. cooperation. The Panamanian constitution explicitly states that armed forces do not exist and will not be formed in the country; instead, there will only be a National Police force. With the U.S. construction of new air-naval bases, starting in 2010, on the coasts of both oceans, the creation of new military battalions began.

President Ricardo Martinelli has given signals that he would not oppose increasing militarization in Panama. The naming of a career military officer as director of the National Police in 2009, the creation of a Security Ministry (2010) and the construction by the United States of the air-naval bases are clear indications of this attitude.

Security Minister J. Raúl Mulino declared that the “invasion” is part of “Panama’s objectives to confront organized crime and narco-trafficking.” World opinion, and especially Panamanian opinion, knows that the problem of production, distribution and consumption of drugs originates in the U.S. and that the solution can only be found with political actions in that country. East Asian countries (Afghanistan, Cambodia and Burma) are victims of these policies. Similarly, in Latin America countries such as Colombia and Mexico, the production and distribution of drugs, respectively, has destroyed the countries’ social fabric.

Currently, the U.S. military has a global intervention program. It tries to hide it beneath the mantel of a fight against “organized crime and narcotrafficking.” This is the goal of Plan Colombia (inaugurated ten years ago) and the Merida Initiative (begun five years ago). The former invested more than a billion dollars in the purchase of sophisticated weaponry by the Colombian government from U.S. companies. In the latter, Mexico has already invested 300 million dollars in the purchase of war planes and other weaponry.

The Merida Initiative, in the case of Panama, began with spending budgeted at over 20 million dollars (to bring the naval air bases up to speed). The local media did not obtain information about the costs that Panama would have to cover due to the presence of U.S. troops in the former Canal Zone bases.

Recently, the Argentine government had to abort a similar U.S. initiative. In that case, the Pentagon tried to introduce into Argentina – under the pretext of organizing a course for members of the Federal Police – contraband equipment, including drugs. The Argentine authorities seized the contraband and sent the U.S. military plane back home.

In the case of Panama, the United States has imposed illegal and unconstitutional “treaties” on the last three governments, by which its military forces have access to the air, land and seas of the isthmus. In addition, its soldiers may carry weapons and have immunity from Panamanian law.

For several years the U.S. has insisted that Panama is a “friend” of narcotrafficking in an effort to create a climate favorable to its intervention. In early March, the State Department labeled Panama an “important center for contraband and warned that its legal and security institutions are susceptible to the influence of narcotrafficking.” In a press release it openly says that “Panamanian officials and members of the U.S. Army will have the opportunity to plan missions, tactical communications, target practice, first aid, and air mobility.”